Supreme Court To Hear Pleas Against SIR In Bihar On Monday

The top court will hear petitions challenging Bihar's Special Intensive Revision on Monday. In the previous hearing, the SC had asked the ECI to consider “in the interest of justice” if documents such as Aadhaar, Voter ID, and Ration Cards could be accepted for voter verification.

Darbhanga voters (Credit: File Photo/IANS)

The Supreme Court is slated to hear, on Monday, a batch of petitions challenging the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar. 

As per the causelist published on the website of the apex court, a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi will resume hearing the matter on July 28.

In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has submitted that pursuant to the SIR process, as on July 18, enumeration forms from 90.12 per cent (i.e. 7.11 crore out of the 7.89 crore) voters in Bihar have already been collected.

Accounting for “deceased individuals, permanently shifted electors, and those enrolled in more than one place, the forms collection phase of the SIR has effectively covered 94.68 per cent of the nearly 7.90 crore-strong electorate in Bihar,” it told the apex court.

The ECI said that it undertook the SIT exercise – the only legally recognised alternative under the existing legal framework for a comprehensive, ground-up preparation of the electoral rolls – to restore public confidence and address other concerns like the presence of names of deceased, shifted, and non-citizens in the electoral rolls.

The poll body said that the accuracy and completeness of the electoral roll are absolutely essential for democracy, and it has been charged with a constitutional duty to ensure its purity.

In the previous hearing, the apex court had asked the poll body to consider “in the interest of justice” if documents such as Aadhaar, Voter ID and Ration Cards could be accepted for voter verification.

In its order passed on July 10, a partial court working day, a bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Bagchi issued notice to the Election Commission, observing that the petitions filed before the top court raised an "important question" which goes to the very roots of the democratic setup of the country.

It had framed three questions for its consideration: First, the power of the ECI to conduct such a special intensive revision of electoral rolls; second, the legality and propriety of the procedure adopted by the ECI; and third, the timeline for conducting SIR right before the ensuing Bihar Assembly elections in November 2025.

The clutch of petitions claimed that if the June 26 decision of the ECI directing SIR is not set aside, it can "arbitrarily" and "without due process" disenfranchise lakhs of voters from electing their representatives, and disrupt free and fair elections and democracy -- a part of the basic structure of the Constitution.

As per the petitioners, there was no reason for the ECI to resort to “drastic exercise” of electoral rolls revision in a poll-bound state in such a short period.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the petitioner side, had contended that the ECI’s order directing the SIR of electoral rolls in Bihar has no basis in law since the revision exercise failed to recognise Aadhaar Card and Voter ID Card for the purpose of verification.

The plea filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said that the revision exercise excluded identification documents such as Aadhaar or ration cards, making marginalised communities (such as SC, STs, and migrant workers) and the poor more vulnerable to exclusion from voting.

"The documentation requirements of the directive, lack of due process as well as the unreasonably short timeline for the said Special Intensive Revision of Electoral Roll in Bihar further make this exercise bound to result in removal of names of lakhs of genuine voters from electoral rolls, leading to their disenfranchisement," it said.

The petition claimed that the impugned SIR order requires the inclusion or retention of a voter’s name in the electoral roll upon production of citizenship documents, including proof of citizenship of either or both parents, failing which the voter is at risk of exclusion.

It added that the June 26 order of poll body is illegal as it presumes ineligibility of a voter unless otherwise proved by way of providing documents (from a limited list of 11 documents) for self as well as documents of mother or father or both, and thus, is ultra vires the Registration of Electors (RER) Rules, 1960.

Terming the pleas against the June 26 decision of the poll body directing SIR as "premature", the ECI said that the contentions raised in the petitions are entirely unsustainable.

"The allegation of exclusion of any eligible voter based upon suspicion is entirely incorrect and unsustainable. [T]he SIR exercise is inclusionary and every attempt has been made by the ECI and its officials to ensure that no eligible elector is excluded from the electoral roll," said the poll body’s affidavit filed before the top court, adding that there are “multiple layers of checks at all stages of the process” and no name of any elector will be deleted from the electoral roll without due process and compliance with principles of natural justice.

The ECI submitted that it has “special focus” directed towards the marginalised, old, poor, sick, etc., to facilitate their enrolment to the extent possible, including through deployment of volunteers for obtaining eligibility documents.

As per the Election Commission, each elector who has submitted the enumeration form with or without documents will be included in the draft roll to be published on August 1 and if any elector who has been unable to submit his enumeration forms is entitled to seek inclusion in the final roll by submitting a claim in the prescribed form along with the declaration.

"Therefore, any person excluded from the draft roll has another opportunity to be included by submission of the form with declaration and documents. This claims period is stipulated for another period of 31 days after the publication of the draft roll till, i.e., September 1, 2025," it said.

After the completion of the entire process, the final roll will be published on September 30, it added.

As per the ECI, even after the publication of the final roll, new electors can be enrolled up to the last date of nominations of the forthcoming Assembly elections in Bihar.

"This is an ongoing process in each election to maximise inclusion. Any apprehension of huge/substantial ensure disenfranchisement is therefore misleading and non-existent," the affidavit said.

Further, the poll body said that the entire edifice of the petition challenging the SIR exercise rests on newspaper articles and columns, which are "replete with misleading facts", and claimed that there has been a deliberate attempt to twist the narrative against the SIR exercise and portray the poll body in a poor light.

"It is trite law that newspaper articles do not constitute reliable evidence on facts stated therein. This Hon'ble court has held that judicial notice of facts and figures stated in a newspaper cannot be taken as such facts and figures are merely hearsay secondary evidence," the affidavit said.

It added that the newspaper articles relied upon by the petitioners to drum up a narrative of exclusion should be "discarded in totality", and such an impermissible methodology would not deserve any indulgence from the Supreme Court.